2016 SDI Guest Artists

Native of Arlington County, VA, Phillip Baraoidan started dancing at the age of 7 at Washington Ballet. Although starting as a ballet dancer, Phillip has ventured on to study jazz, modern, tap, and hip hop. This has been influential as Mr. Baraoidan still continues to teach and demonstrate in the convention dance circuit with organizations as Dance Masters of America, Showstoppers Conventions, and Dance Makers Inc. Mr. Baraoidan is a dance teacher, choreographer, and performer, currently residing in the DC area, but has worked nationwide. Some performance credits include programs at VCU, the Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and Ed Mervish Theater (Canada) to name a few. He has performed in works by Scott Putnam, Christian Von Howard, Kate Weare, and Stephanie Martinez. He is excited to be a new company member of ClancyWorks.

Adrienne has been a notable dancer, choreographer, and artistic director for over 20 years. As the Founding and Artistic Director, Adrienne Clancy dedicates her artistic life to ClancyWorks, a Maryland-based non-profit company of highly qualified local and national artists. Through the motto “Shifting Perceptions Through Performance,” ClancyWorks uses the arts as a vehicle to develop mutual understanding and advance positive social action.

Over the past twenty years, Dr. Clancy has choreographed and performed throughout the world. She was the youngest choreographer to present at the Suzanne Dellal International World Dance Competition in Tel Aviv, and the sole student choreographer to represent the United States in the International College Dance Festival in Kobe, Japan, which toured to Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Clancy has taught and performed at the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia and toured her work alongside the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (LLDX). As a member of LLDX, Clancy taught modern dance techniques for the Dance and Community Partnerships Workshop at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Her choreography has been performed internationally in Australia, Colombia, England, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Paraguay and Poland.

Dr. Clancy was a member of the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company; a Rehearsal Director, Project Director, and Company Member for the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; a Principal Dancer for Nora Reynolds Dance and Paradigm Dance Company; and a Guest Artist for Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, Victoria Marks (via the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange), Bill Evans Dance Company, Paradigm Dance Company, Jennifer Predock-Linnell, Doug Hamby Dance, and Cathy Paine Mixed Media.  Clancy has learned and performed repertory created by Bebe Miller, Sarah Gamblin, Pat Catterson, Rachel Harms, Jeffery Gunshol, Judith Steel, Martha Curtis, and Chris Burnside.  In addition to directing ClancyWorks, Clancy currently collaborates with Sandra Lacy to co-choreograph and perform duets. 

Adrienne Clancy is honored to receive awards for her teaching and choreography, the most recent being an invitation to present on 2016 TEDx Midatlantic and a Keynote Speech (2016) for the  Anne Arundel Arts Council, the 2014 County Executive’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities, Education Award, and the 2014 Individual Artist Award for Choreography from the MD State Arts Council as well as from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and the NDEO 2013 Outstanding Dance Educator of the Year Award. 

Clancy earned her Ph.D. and a MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. Clancy holds a BFA in Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and a MA in Dance, emphasis in History & Criticism, from University of New Mexico. Clancy continues to write, most recently penning the foreword for Reminiscences of a Dancing Man, a book written by Bill Evans and published by the National Dance Association in 2006. In addition, she has been commissioned to write for the Oxford University’s International Encyclopedia of Dance. She currently teaches at George Mason University (VA), and has taught a variety of courses at American University (DC), the University of Maryland Baltimore County (MD), Towson University (MD), Community College of Baltimore Essex (MD), George Washington University (DC), Goucher College (MD), and graduate courses at the University of Maryland College Park (MD).

Dr. Clancy is honored to have learned from & collaborated with so many bold, driven, generous and talented artists connected to the ClancyWorks community.

Courtney Harris, Assistant Professor of Dance at Virginia Commonwealth University, hails from Texas where she danced professionally with the Houston Ballet under the directorship of Ben Stevenson from 1993-1999. During her tenure in Houston, she had the opportunity to perform a diverse spectrum of roles in many classical and contemporary ballets and worked with several renowned choreographers, including Jiří Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Trey McIntyre, and Stanton Welch. Some of her favorite roles include Odette/Odile from Stevenson’s “Swan Lake” and Manon from Sir Kenneth McMillan’s “Manon.” During the off-season, Harris additionally performed as a guest artist with Carlos Acosta and the Stars of the Houston Ballet.

Interested in developing her choreographic voice after her dancing career, Harris earned her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and her MFA from The Ohio State University’s Department of Dance. Harris’ research interests are twofold: re-framing ballet’s teaching practices through the lens of critical pedagogies, while also actively engaging in a creative practice in which feminist and queer discourse are embedded in her art-making. Harris and her collaborator, Charli Brissey, have screened films at International dance and LGBTQ film festivals all over the world, including screenings in India, Switzerland, Scotland, Argentina, France, Toronto, Finland, London, Ireland, Sweden, and Vancouver, as well as prestigious dance festivals such as Dance On Camera and Dance Camera West.

Most recently, Harris and Brissey co-produced and co-choreographed a multi-media immersive theater performance that merged dance, theater, and drag performance with art, film, and sound installations: www.20ruejacob.net. The next iteration of this project, entitled 20 Rue Jacob, will be performed in D.C. in the summer of 2017. She has presented research at the National Dance Education Organization, The Image Conference, and CORPS de Ballet International’s annual conferences, where she also serves as the Treasurer. Harris returns to the American Dance Festival in Durham as teaching faculty for her fourth summer festival. She is delighted to join ClancyWorks at D.C.’s Dance Place for the 2016 Summer Dance Institute.

Sandra Lacy is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dancing in London. She has performed with the Maryland Ballet, Impetus Dance Company, Path Dance Company, Phoenix Repertory Dance, James Hansen’s Assemblage Dance Company, ClancyWorks Dance Company, Lorraine Chapman The Company and Bill T. Jones /Arnie Zane and Company. Currently Ms. Lacy is Co-Artistic Director of Lacy& Shade Solo Duet Dance Works. Ms Lacy is a recipient of 8 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Solo Dance Performance. She is a member of the Dance Faculty at UMBC and the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2008 Ms Lacy completed the Gyrokinesis teacher training program. Presently Ms. Lacy is working on her teacher training in Gyrotonics and studies in New York with neuromuscular therapist Irene Dowd.

Rebecca Weiss, a New Jersey Native, has been dancing since the age of four. In 2011, Rebecca was accepted to Virginia Commonwealth University where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography in May 2015. While attending VCU, she had the opportunity to perform in several student works and faculty works by Martha Curtis, Melanie Richards, and Robbie Kinter. In Summer 2013, Rebecca traveled to Noto, Sicily where she studied and trained at Consorzio Universitario Mediterraneo Orientale (CUMO) under the guidance of Melanie Richards. Rebecca has had the opportunity perform in the Richmond Dance Festival in both 2014 and 2015. She was also featured in the evening length work, All Water has a Perfect Memory, choreographed and directed by Malinda Crump. This past year, her choreographic work “Unraveling Walls” was selected to be performed at the American College Dance Festival. Rebecca was also a company dancer for RVA Dance Collective in their 2014-2015 season under the direction of Jess Burgess and Danica Kalemdaroglu. Most recently, she performed in the Dark Night Showcase at the Synetic Theatre in Washington, DC under the direction of Kathy Gay.

Countess Winfrey was born and raised in Nashville, TN. She began her formal dance training in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, African, and Hip Hop at Nashville School of the Arts. Later, she attended the University of Memphis, and graduated with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Health and Human Performance and a minor in Dance. In addition to her school training, Countess has also participated in a variety of dance festivals including the American High School Dance Festival, the American College Dance Festival, the American Dance Festival, and the David Dorfman Dance Winter Intensive. She has performed works by Paul Taylor, David Dorfman, Alvin Rangel, Robert Priore, Crystal Perkins, Rodney A. Brown and many other artists. She has also collaborated with and choreographed works as a guest artist for the University of Memphis, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company's second company, Central State University, and  many local dance studios in Dayton, Ohio. In addition to choreographing, she has also taught a variety of Master classes at local studios in various cities throughout the nation.  Countess has danced professionally for Project Motion Modern Dance Collective, Bridging Souls Productions, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and is very excited to start her first season with Clancyworks Dance Company.